Amy - Letter from Mozzie
by coryspalls
Summary: Set after Amy quits her job and returns to the Midwest and her parents. How a letter from Moz helps her put her life back on track.


Amy was glad to be home. She clipped the plastic tablecloth to the plastic table with heavy duty plastic picnic clips. Her fourteen-year-old nephew, Tyson, sat with his dad talking about music. Arguing about music really but good naturally. Her niece, an eight-year-old wonder girl, carried out a bag of plastic tumblers, plastic plates, a roll of paper towels and, for a touch of class, stainless spoons.

Amy set the table for the seven of them, leaving four glasses, plates, a handful of spoons and the serving spoons in the bag. Her sister-in-law carried, one in each hand, a pitcher of icetea and lemonade to the backyard table. She looked at the table and frowned at Amy but said nothing. Seconds later Amy watched as her niece and mother emerged from the house with an abundance of potato salad, jello, coleslaw, carrot salad and baked beans. Her father was making too many ribs for seven of them. Plus he was making two packages of hot dogs.

"This is a lot of food," Amy said to the family. They had been getting together for Saturday BBQ every week since her return to her childhood bedroom after quitting her NYC life. Usually, her dad made drumsticks, one each and three hot dogs. Most of the time her mom made one or two side dishes.

"I didn't know they didn't tell you." Her sister-in-law apologized as she shuffled the table settings around to add places for four more people.

"Hey Gordon, it's good to see you!" Amy's brother called as a truck parked in the driveway. Amy had not seen Gordon since high school graduation. Her brother had attended Gordon's wedding while she was in college. Her brother and his friend, Gordon's older brother, had conspired to get her and Gordon dating back in high school.

Gordon's children filed through the gate in front of him. A boy about nine. He and Tyson looked at each other disdainfully. His sister, a girl of about seven, approached Amy's niece. The two girls were bickering about whether a TV show was stupid or the best within minutes. The third child, a girl of about three clung to her father's leg. He ignored her as he looked Amy up and down.

"I feel like he's shopping for a hooker," Amy told her mother.

"Amy really!" Her mother sounded shocked. She told everyone where to sit, placing the children and teen at one end of the table and Amy, her brother and Gordon at the other with herself, her daughter-in-law and her husband in the middle of the crowded table.

The children squabbled. The adults ate in silence. "Tyson, you have hardly eaten" his mother chided.

"I told you, I'm vegan!"

"At least eat some potato salad! That's not meat."

"It has eggs in it."

"So what's wrong with the beans?"

"They have meat in them." He looked like he wanted to crawl inside himself.

"Oh, for Christ's own sake. I've had enough of this nonsense. Are you going to eat nothing but Jello for the rest of your life?"

Amy's nephew scrunched down. Amy spoke up. "actually jello is a meat product."

"This is all you fault!" Amy's sister-in-law glared at Amy. "Your New York City culinary snobbery"

Amy knew that her sister-in-law was just frustrated. The woman wasn't cruel. The dinner Amy had with the con artist the night a man planned to kill her sprang to mind and she felt herself go a little dizzy.

Everyone turned to her nephew asking him about being a vegan, asking why he decided to be one. Everyone was incredulous, from the three-year-old guest clinging to her big sister to the teen's own grandfather. Amy tried to pull herself together. She had not fallen apart when the two men were in her apartment. She had even met the man she had gone out with on the sidewalk after quitting her job and confronted him about being manipulative. Why was she feeling so shaky now?

"Can I be excused?" her nephew asked his father.

"Good idea, Tyson and I will just walk down and check the mail." Amy leaped to her feet and fled from the backyard, her nephew following close behind leaving everyone else to deal with the company that neither Amy nor Tyson appreciated sharing their meal with.

At the mailbox Amy claimed the single envelope with her name on it, absently handing the rest to her nephew. The envelope did not have a return address on it. Stalling for time, as she was not ready to rejoin the gathering, she opened the letter.

It contained five sheets of paper. Screenshots of newspaper articles, printed front and back, covered three pages.

Seeing his aunt become pallid, Tyson read over her shoulder. The title read "FBI Agent Cleared of Criminal Charges" Tyson started reading the article: "FBI agent Peter Burke was cleared of any charges of wrongdoing in the shooting of Interpol criminal informant Mathew Keller." The article continued but Tyson jumped ahead to a highlighted section. "Mathew Keller is the primary suspect in the murder of Neal Caffrey." Further down the page highlighted: "Burke stated to the court that while it is true, he hated Keller, 'I did not kill him because he had a hostage, or because he had just shot my CI. I shot him because he was squeezing the trigger of the gun he had pointed at me.' Burke has a history with Keller including the kidnapping with conspiracy to murder Burke's wife."

Tyson wondered why someone had sent this article to his aunt and why she was staring at it. She turned the page over, another article. "Notorious Band of Criminals Brought Down in FBI Sting". Tyson scanned the article: FBI, working in conjunction with Interpol successfully arraigned the Pink Panthers. The Pink Panthers were attempting to steal an unknown sum of cash from the Federal Reserve. This successful operation came at a high cost, three of the four people that set about to catch these hardened criminals were killed in the process.

Amy flipped to the next sheet, this one contained a short article: "A fifty-eight-year-old woman was murdered in front of her nephew's home today. The NYPD says there are no suspects. This appears to be a random act of violence as nothing was stolen and the woman has no known enemies."

Under the article, a typed note read: "Ellen is the woman that raised Neal. She has many known enemies. She has been in witness protection for the last thirty-three years."

Tyson inquired, "Neal was your boyfriend then? The guy you were going out with, that you quit your job over."

"What has that brother of mine been saying! I just went out with him, he cooked me dinner once at his place. He cooked me lunch once and brought it got my office because I couldn't take a lunch break."

"So, why are you so upset?"

"You should go back, I'm going for a walk."

The teen put the mail in his hand back in the box. "I don't think you should be alone." Realizing that his aunt might not like to be babied he turned it around "Please, I'm not ready to face mom being made at me."

"Neither of us are ready to play nice with your grandparent's guests." Amy agreed as she wandered down the road. Seeing that his aunt was in a daze the teen steered them to the park where he guided her to a shaded picnic table.

Amy watched the people passing on the bike trail with little interest. Tyson read the articles.

"It says the guy you were seeing got killed, his boss killed the guy that killed him. The guy you were seeing, his boss had killed another guy too, before - but not long ago, while he was working as the handler for this Neal guy." The teen read with his finger tracing the words, as if he needed to pin them down "The guy you were, um, - his aunt got killed, his FBI handler boss got killed by Neal's girlfriend, his girlfriend got killed by a cop while she was in prison; she stole the Hope Diamond! Your boyfriend, I mean the guy you were eating with" he amended, "his girlfriend beat the shit out of a prison guard to escape prison and she murdered a criminal that was working with her stealing the diamond." He looked at his aunt, at her hair up in a ponytale, her yellow summer dress. She looked the picture of wholesomeness. "You seriously dated this guy?"

She didn't answer, just stared at a man passing by on a bike, with a dog trotting along beside him. The teen went back to reading. "He had a girlfriend before the murderer. That lady got killed in an explosion. How long did you date this guy?"

"I met him at the market, he was buying vegetables. He invited me out to lunch, three days later I quit my job. He was a con-artist, his job was to distract me while the criminals he worked with, stole the information out of the vault at my job. He did that, smiled at me in front of everybody at the office while his _friends_ stole the algorithm."

"Dad said you quit your job because someone tried to kill you."

"Yes, one of the guys working with Neal, I don't remember his name. Presumably one of the guys that have been arrested. Neal saved my life and got me a promotion at work. It wasn't right, the way I kept my job, so I quit. Didn't even give them notice just walked out."

"Mom said you didn't get a reference."

"Harold, Mr. Grant, give me a glowing recommendation. Its a pack of lies designed to cover his backside. Using him as a reference would be a lie."

"That's why you're working as a checker at the grocery store?"

"It's not a bad job."

"So I should skip going to college?"

"That's not what I meant."

"I know, but think, that man, the con-artist living in the home where his aunt or mom was killed. I think a landlord would kick him out, that's creepy. Did he seem -" Tyson struggled to figure out just what his question was, his aunt had come home scared. His parents had been worried. He hadn't been, it had seemed so random. He had been told only a little and had believed his aunt had been mugged when out alone too late at night.

"Does it say why he grew up in witness protection?"

"It didn't say that."

"It said the woman that raised him had been in witness protection longer than I've been alive, so it does stay that," Amy explained.

"Wow, that would be cool!"

Amy returned to watching people go by on the bike path. "I met his landlady, she told me that he'd asked her to come be a third wheel on our date. She told me he had been taken in by his last girlfriend and it had been devastating for him. She suggested I stay the night, invited me to breakfast with her if I did. She seemed so nice, she cared about him. Wanted me to know he wasn't the kind of guy that's always having girls over," Amy spoke as if she had forgotten Tyson was just a kid.

Tyson's curiosity on the behavior of dating adults got the best of him. "Did you spend the night?"

"No, I went home and a guy tried to kill me in my own apartment."

The teen examined his phone, it had been buzzing with incoming texts from his mother. He put it back in his pocket without reading them.

"There's a letter here, can I read it?"

"Tyson, you've been reading it."

"Those were newspaper clippings, this is a letter, unsigned and a recommendation from Agent Burke."

Amy read the letter on FBI stationery. It was a letter of recommendation for employment with completely vague accolades for her assistance to the Borough.

Tyson read the other letter aloud.

Amy,

Neal was my best friend. Depression has been my constant companion this past six months. Most of what Neal left undone is beyond my abilities to fix. I know you met his landlady. She and I have been friends since Neal introduced us. We still get together, but now Neal's absence is always there with us. She mentioned you a while back. Described you as "That lovely woman Neal brought over." She said "He was so scared she would get hurt. He thought her to be fragile, he underestimated her. I knew that as soon as this case was over he would tell her everything. She was the one for Neal."

A memory of a conversation Neal and I had keeps haunting me.

"A slap, how very Jane Crawford"

"I deserved it. I never should have put her in harm's way"

"You mean in Keller's way"

"Even worse"

"There is no worse, except maybe Luc … he's a Frenchman that doesn't drink wine; he's capable of anything."

"I never wanted to be this guy, someone that hurts innocent people."

"The con-man's dilemma."

"Maybe that's why I like working for the FBI, we only con bad people."

"I still subscribe to W. C. Fields mantra 'you can't cheat an honest man'"

"Amy was the exception, she spent years trying to build her future and I stole that from her."

"Or you could look at it the other way"

"What other way"

"If you hadn't been there to protect her from Keller she would have had no future to steal."

Neal knew I was right, but he died knowing he had ruined your career and put you in danger. The men he and the FBI nabbed are bad and they have people that are not locked up that could go after you. Neal would have found a way to help you out. He once made sure a lady he'd gone on one date with ended up with half a million USD for endangering her. That was reward money for turning him to an FBI agent when he was working undercover for the FBI. He was a good con, he loved working undercover. Neal was an artist, his ability as a painting forger was what got the FBI's interest. You did not miss judge Neal. He was always willing to give everything he had to protect those he cared about.

I looked you up to make sure you were okay. Please be careful with this recommendation letter to not attract undesirables. Please use it to put your life back on track.

The letter was not signed.

When Tyson finished reading the letter he handed it to his aunt and took the FBI letter and folded it carefully. As he placed it in the envelope he noticed a piece of paper.

"Aunt Amy, there is a card." Tyson handed it to her confused.

"It is a bassinet label from the birthing ward of a hospital." Amy told him seeing the card "Neal Mitchell Burke."

"I guess the FBI guy named his kid after the guy that fed you dinner."

Amy took the letter from Tyson and re-read it while the teen re-read the newspaper articles. She stood abruptly. "We need to get back. You can't tell anyone about any of this. Got IT?"

Tyson nodded. He started to say something a couple times but didn't get farther than opening his mouth. They walked past the mailbox without collecting the mail.

"Not a word of this to anyone," Amy said again as they approached the house. He nodded.

"Where did you two disappear to?" Her mother demanded as they opened the gate to the back yard.

"To talk about why I would never be a vegetarian, and why I think he should follow his heart." Amy turned to her sister-in-law "I can see why you don't want to have to deal with mixed eating habits in your home. Your son is old enough to do his own cooking and shopping. If you require it he can even earn his own money to feed himself. He has made this decision with thought. He is not making this personal decision to make your life difficult."

Amy's sister-in-law stared at her.

Amy's mother frowned. "We had company over." Amy was relieved, Gordon and his children had left.

"You are welcome to have company over mom. I am sorry I have intruded on you as I have these last months. It was a hard time. I'm grateful you let me move into my childhood bedroom while I found someone to sublet my apartment and paid off my credit cards from all the expenses of moving away from New York City so abruptly. I truly did not mean to interfere with whom you invite over. Any time you wish to have guests I do not care for I will simply leave to prevent discomfort to all involved. You do not need to be concerned about hurting my feeling by befriending people I do not wish to have in my life."

Amy turned to her brother. "Or your friends, though your kids and his do not appear to like each other so maybe the two of you should go golfing or maybe bowling. Something that leaves your kids out of the visit."

The teen and his little sister exchanged a look.

"Sorry dear, I just thought it would be nice." Amy's brother and father rolled their eyes in unison behind mom's back. "Honey, you need to do something, the job doesn't pay enough, it's part time, you have been so down."

"I'm okay mom. Tyson, we forgot the mail, why don't you go fetch it?" The teen jumped and hurried out through the gate. He recognized an excuse to escape being grilled when it was handed to him.

"Why did you encourage him?" Amy wondered if her sister-in-law was intentionally helping her get out from under her mother's interrogation or if she was so upset she had jumped in over her mother-in-law's topic. She was grateful either way.

"I disagree, it is important to trust your gut, learn to make your own judgments."

"That didn't work out well for you. Moving to New York City. A huge mistake."

"No Dad it wasn't. I love New York, I had six really good years there."

"You wasted six years, look at-"

"Oh ya, look at Gordon, three kids, and a divorce. Dad, we dated because of you and his dad". She gestured to her brother "And him and his friends; all of you wanted us together. He liked someone else. I got the two of them together. It's not my fault they got divorced. It's not my job to fix his life."

The whole family stared at her. She sighed, "He was a just fine first boyfriend, but truly marrying him would have been a waste of my life." Everyone turned away from Amy.

Her niece sat looking away, pretending to have all of her attention on petting the family dog. Amy's brother sat with his wife on the porch swing, the girl smiled to see her parents relax in front of her grandparents. Amy's father took hand loppers and pruned the hedge, her mother retreated inside.

"Have you told them you're moving out?" Tyson asked quietly as he returned with the mail.

"Not yet, I am giving them a chance to be reasonable."

Tyson smiled at his parents and mouthed "get a room". They sprang apart. His grandfather lookout at all three. Tyson felt the disapproval. "I'm 14, not 8!" He shot his sister an apologetic glance and caught her brief smile. Forgiven.

Their parents closed the gap between them. Tyson handed his grandfather the mail before sitting down by his sister. "What do you say to Hangman?"

"Is Aunt Amy going back to New York?"

"I don't know but the dweeb isn't her type, no brats for cousins!"

"I got that. Are you really not going to eat eggs and milk?"

"I saw a film on factory farming, it's disgusting!"

"I like deviled eggs, custard, pudding, lemon meringue pie, ice cream, Hot cocoa when I come inside in the winter."

"I do too, but I keep seeing the pens, the cages and I feel sick."

"Did you really tell Aunt Amy that you would buy your own food and do your own cooking?"

"No, we talked about something else. She, um, a friend of her's was murdered, she got a letter in the mail to let her know. The guy, he's the reason she left New York."

"I thought she was the one that almost got killed?"

"The guy that was going to kill her killed her friend, and some other guy too. The guy that tried to kill her got shot by an FBI agent. Her friend worked for the FBI. I'm not supposed to tell anybody." Tyson said looking guilty.

"I won't tell"

"I know you won't squirt."

They returned to playing hangman on his phone.

Three weeks later Amy told her family at the Saturday BBQ that she had taken an assistant manager position in security at a federal credit union. She would have a forty minute commute until she found her own place.


End file.
